Democracy in South Africa since the demise of apartheid has resulted in significant changes in political discourse. Yet, the country's multiparty democratic system remains challenged by majoritarianism, which might not always enhance deliberation in political discourse. In the present article, I show how constitutive goods of communitarian liberalism, namely caring, conversational justice and political reasoning, can be linked to the notion of deliberative democracy. Such a form of deliberative democracy is constituted by rationality that involves: (a) the view that rational articulation of arguments is a valuable part of human agency, (b) the view that political formulations have to be consistent and without contradiction, (c) the view that most citizens should in principle be attuned with 'the order of things', and (d) the view that relevant arguments need to be advanced in unconstrained inter-subjective processes of rational deliberation. It is such a notion of communitarian deliberative democracy that restricts majoritarianism and holds the promise to advance political discourse in South Africa.
Communitarian deliberative democracy and its implications for political discourse in South Africa
Reprints and Corporate Permissions
Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?
To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:
Academic Permissions
Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?
Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:
If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.
Related research
People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.
Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.
Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.